Gary Webster was publicly fired Tuesday as punishment for refusing to support Mayor Rob Ford's underground-only transit expansion plans. But his absence doesn't mean Ford is going to be able to backtrack on city council's decision to revert to more street-level LRT.

The Ford administration knows it can’t stop council-approved LRT plans and instead has turned its focus to long-term subway expansion for Toronto, say those close to the mayor.

In the wake of TTC chief Gary Webster’s dramatic public firing Tuesday, many have questioned whether Ford would once again try to unilaterally scrap the light rail strategy, as he did his first day in office.

But according to members of Ford’s inner circle, the administration realizes there isn’t provincial support to ignore council’s recent decision to resurrect Transit City. So while Metrolinx pursues the light-rail vision, Ford will continue calling for subways and setting the framework for his 2014 re-election campaign. And if he somehow does manage to finagle his subway vision back on the table now, well, that’s just gravy.

Councillor Frank Di Giorgio, one of the five TTC commissioners who voted to remove Webster, said the plan going forward is to adopt a strategy that incorporates consistent subway expansion.

“The issues of timelines and cost will need to be worked out, maybe it’s one station a year, but this city needs an integrated transit system and I think that means expanding the subway system,” he said.

Meanwhile, a coalition of councillors is working behind the scenes to ensure the mayor can’t be “an obstructionist” for transit development in an effort to get his way on subway expansion.

Many have quietly expressed concern that Ford might try to hold certain provincial transit initiatives hostage — such as Union Station redevelopment or implementing the Presto pay system — by delaying them at the committee level.

If the group of councillors secures 30 votes — the magic two-thirds-of-council number — it would mean Ford won’t have control of his own committees. The arrangement would be unprecedented at city hall and would have repercussions for the Ford administration well beyond transit.

“The high-level concern is: What if he really wanted to be destructive? What do we need to do to prevent that from basically backing us into gridlock,” said Councillor Adam Vaughan, adding that the group is “very close” to 30.

“A significant majority of councillors are appalled at the way in which business is being run at city hall, and we don’t think it’s the mayor’s fault. We think he’s getting bad advice from his staff … It’s not just on the TTC file; it’s on housing, it’s on every other file.”

Although no provincial official has signaled that Queen’s Park could be on the brink of pulling its $8.4 billion in funding for Toronto transit, the premier has indicated his growing impatience with the city’s subway-LRT battles, and now Webster’s firing.

Commenting on recent developments at Queen’s Park, Transportation Minister Bob Chiarelli said Wednesday: “I guess in their own way they’re acting responsibly in their own minds, but looking at it from our point of view, I think it’s very important that they very, very quickly come to the table.”

“There’s this notion that there’s a ‘subway plan.’ Rob Ford keeps talking about a subway plan, and there’s no subway plan. As soon as Rob Ford can tell us where he’s going to get $4 billion for a subway, then we can discuss a subway,” she said. “Until that point, we cannot. It’s frustrating that he’s talking about subways on Eglinton and subways on Sheppard, when we actually have no plan.”

With files from Tess Kalinowski and Rob Ferguson

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